January 22-26, 2017
How is the concept of ethics related to the holiday of the trees? As Tu B’Shevat is approaching, we wanted to find a way to tie in our past unit on ethics to the current holiday. In the past two weeks, the children were exposed to a variety of values and morals through children books and discussions on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. One value that stood out in each story was “respect”. Elliot, Ayla and Kora described the meaning of respect as, “being nice.” We asked the children, “Why is it important to respect trees?” and “How do we respect them?” Paisley said that we need to respect trees because trees make paper for us and also give us fruit. Kayden explained, “Trees give us wood to build houses and oxygen so that we can breathe. After listening to the story Happy Birthday, Tree! A Tu B’Shevat Story, the children understood the importance of treating the trees and the earth with respect and kindness. Skyler told her peers that we can be respectful by watering trees. Wynter shared, “We can be nice to trees by giving them love. We can make a card for the trees and tape it on the tree.” Ella thought that it is just as important to water the plants as it is to water the trees. Carter said, “We have to pick the fruit off the tree so that it does not get bad.” Mason followed up with, “We have to pick it before it gets moldy otherwise we waste it and can’t eat it.” Over the course of the week, the children demonstrated a thorough understanding in the importance of trees in our lives and how we can continue to help them grow. Tu B’Shevat is celebrated by enjoying foods that symbolize the land of Israel. These include figs, grapes, olives, dates, and pomegranates. While the children will get to taste a variety of fresh and dried fruits next week on Tu B’Shevat, we prepared a special snack for the children to taste the specific items found on the holiday seder plate. Each plate had wheat crackers, fig jam, black olives, green olives, raisins, and a cup of pomegranate juice a the head of the setting. A Tu B’Shevat tradition involves trying a new fruit that has not been eaten all season. In light of this custom, we provided the children with a taste of a dried peach since peaches are just coming back into season for spring and summer. Benjamin’s favorite tester was the black olives. Owen loved the dried peach leather, and Kora enjoyed the raisins. We are excited for the children to have the opportunity to try an abundance of fruits next week at our Pre-K Tu B’Shevat celebration. Room 8 also enjoyed a week full of board games! The children participated in three different games including Monopoly Junior Party theme, The Ladybug Game, and Candy Land. Board games translate into both social and academic skills that children can, in turn, apply to their everyday lives. Each of these games require at least 2-4 players meaning that the children must practice and develop social and communication skills in order to successfully play the game. The children have the opportunity to strenghten their relationship with children they might not usually play with while building on the rug. In addition, board games might not appear to be overtly academic, but they always have an underlying lesson to teach. For instance, Monopoly Junior encourages social skills along with counting, number recognition, patterns, rules, and even reading. Even if children might view the game as an academic activity with numbers, letters and reading, once they get involved in a game, they can’t help but have fun! When playing Monopoly Junior with a group of 4 children, many others approached the game and asked to also play. No matter the board game set up on the table, we always hear children’s laughter as they play. We will continue to play these games so that each child will have the opportunity to fully master each set of rules. We can’t wait to introduce new games as the children grow their skill sets through the remainder of the year. We are starting something new in Pre-K that we are very excited about. We have begun to introduce the Handwriting Without Tears program. This award-winning Pre-K curriculum is developmentally appropriate and designed so that all children can thrive and build a strong foundation for kindergarten. This program uses music and movement to engage children and help them develop good learning habits. Children learn actively as they play, color, draw, count, build, and sing. We’ll be teaching your child to:
Your children will learn important readiness, early writing, literacy, and math skills. These potentially complex subjects will be broken down into simpler tasks that develop on what children already know. This way, they can master skills one step at a time as they build lifelong learning habits. Thank you to Kayden’s family for joining us for Shabbat and celebrating his 5th birthday! We loved singing songs with your family and singing “Happy Birthday.” Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend! Mari & Aaliyah Shabbat Family Schedule: 2/2- Paisley 2/9- Carter 2/16- Ella 2/23- Neda Reminders: 1. 2/3- Tot Shabbat AND Wise School Gala 2. 2/5-2/9- Father and Grandfather’s Week – events TBA 3. 2/9- All School Shabbat for Father’s and Grandfather’s – 11am in ZH 4. 2/12-2/16- EC Picture Week (Room 8 classroom picture day TBA) 5. 2/19- No school President’s Day 6. 2/20- No school PD Day 7. 2/23- Beit Issie Farmers Market
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January 15-19, 2017
On Wednesday, we jumped right into the short week with a cooking project. We used the left over cream cheese from last week’s snack to try out our Oreo Cheesecake recipe. Instead of only using regular Oreos, we thought we would try out the recipe mixing chocolate cookie with Golden Oreos. Kora, Wynter, Skyler and Ayla worked hard to crush up lots of Oreo cookies! We put a couple of cookies in a few Ziploc bags, and the girls used all their strength to make crumbs of the cookies. Then, we mixed the crumbs with butter and pressed it into a square baking dish. Some more friends joined these girls in making the cheesecake filling. Paisley showed the girls how to hold the mixer, while she whipped the heavy whipping cream until peaks formed. Ella joined the group and helped the rest of the girls add sugar, vanilla, lemon juice, and of course, the cream cheese. We mixed all the ingredients together and then, folded in the whipped cream. The girls decorated the top of the cheesecake with more Oreo bits and crumbs. Since this was a no-bake recipe, we refrigerated the cheesecake for a few hours and the class enjoyed a delicious treat at the end of the day! We continued with our topic on “Ethics” and read another book related to this concept. Last week, we read 3 books to the children that all brought up different examples of ethical questions. After discussing the importance of these 3 books with the kids, we finally introduced the title and main idea of these books, “Ethics”. Ask your child what they think “ethics” means. All of the books we read to the children touched on the idea of right vs. wrong and important values that we should focus on in everyday life. For instance, Elliot explained that Martin Luther King Jr. wanted everyone to be friends, which highlights the value of friendship. Kayden describe d “being ethical” as being nice to others since that is also another goal of Martin Luther King Jr. Ethics is an important concept that can be linked to any classroom topic and everyday experiences. It is essential that the developing child be introduced to this vocabulary and begins to understand the meaning and importance of ethics. We will continue to connect the idea of ethics, various values, and the concept of the right thing versus the wrong thing in future class discussions and activities. Teacher Aaliyah read another book to the class titled, A Sack Full of Feathers, which brings up another ethical thought. This story teaches the children an important lesson in gossiping and spreading rumors. While this is a complicated concept for 4-5 year old children, we discussed this idea on the level of what happens in the classroom when one friend might keep a secret from another, or when friends tell false stories to their peers. Ask your child if they think it is okay to tell secrets. Then, follow that first question with, “How does it make you feel if you are not in on the secret?” While gossip and rumors seem to be a natural part of social order, we can continue to help break the chain by teaching the values of respect at an early age. We are excited for a full week of school next week to dive further into Ethics and begin our discussion on the holiday of Tu B’Shevat. Thank you to Mason’s family for joining our classroom Shabbat celebration this week. Mason was very excited to have his family share this experience with him! Shabbat Shalom and have a great weekend! Mari & Aaliyah Shabbat Family Schedule: 1/26- Kayden 2/2- Paisley 2/9- Carter 2/16- Ella 2/23- Neda Reminders: 1. 2/3- Tot Shabbat AND Wise School Gala 2. 2/5-2/9- Father and Grandfather’s Week – events TBA 3. 2/9- All School Shabbat for Father’s and Grandfather’s – 11am in ZH 4. 2/12-2/16- EC Picture Week (Room 8 classroom picture day TBA) 5. 2/19- No school President’s Day 6. 2/20- No school PD Day 7. 2/23- Beit Issie Farmers Market January 8-12, 2017
Room 8 started off the week reading a new book, Elmer and Wilbur by David McKee. Elmer, a rainbow checkered elephant, is waiting for his cousin, Wilbur, a black and white checkered elephant, to arrive. As Elmer waits patiently for his cousin, Wilbur seems to be missing. The story follows Elmer and his gray elephant friends as they search for Wilbur by listening to clues that Wilbur throws at them. In the end, Elmer is saddened by the fact that Wilbur continues to joke around and hide instead of presenting himself. Just as Elmer is about to go home, he finds Wilbur stuck in a tree. In conclusion, Wilbur was trying to trick his friends and be playful, but in the process, he got himself into a sticky situation and needed help from Elmer and his friends. We posed the question, “Is it nice to play tricks on your friends?” We also inquired, “How would you feel if you got yourself into a sticky situation?” Ayla and Elliot shared that they would be angry and mad, while other friends said they would be sad. How would you get out of the predicament? Mason said, “You can ask for help or if you got lost, you could ring someone’s door bell. Or you could just not go outside at all!” Skyler explained, “That person at the door, if they are nice, they can help you go to your house because you are lost and can’t find your house.” In summary, this book highlights the importance of behavior being right versus wrong. Was it nice of Wilbur, or the right thing to do, to trick Elmer? Was Wilbur being honest with his friends? This book poses many ethical questions and highlights several values, including trustworthiness, honesty, fairness, and caring, that should be integrated into everyday life. We chose this book as an introduction to our unit on Ethics, which will incorporate an in-depth explanation of which behavior or action is right or wrong and why we choose that behavior. For instance, is it ethical to trick your friends? Is it wrong to not help your friend because they hurt your feelings by tricking you? These are difficult concepts and questions that we will help your children understand through stories, conversations and class experiences with their peers, so that they can use these values in their everyday life. We chose to begin this new topic of Ethics at this point in the school year since we believe it falls in line with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s beliefs. He fought for the values of equality, respect, selflessness, and peace. We explained to the children that even though Elmer might have been wronged, he continued to demonstrate selflessness as he helped Wilbur down from the tree. As we further discuss Martin Luther King Jr. in class, we will make sure to highlight these values and prove the importance of doing the “right” action in our lives. After introducing new vocabulary, “past, “present”, and “future” the previous week, we expanded on how things relate over time by showing the children various items that have changed over the years. We started this discussion by showing them a picture of a public bus from the 1960s and a bus from the present. Being that Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday is next week, we thought to begin with pictures of buses to show the children that things were different during the time in which he lived. The children had the opportunity to take a look at a picture of a bus from the 1960s and a picture of a bus from current times. The children struggled to identify big differences in the two buses. For instance, they mentioned colors and that the shape of the windows were different. We realized that the differences were very slim, so we moved on to show them pictures of various cars to see if that would further pique their interest. We began by showing the children a picture of a car from the early 1900s, and posed the question, “How has a car changed over time?” We asked, “How is this car different from the cars that you drive in now?” We immediately watched the children perk up and look confused at the picture of the old time vehicle. They were fascinated by the fact that an old-time car did not have doors or seatbelts. We explained that in the past, there were not actual paved roads. People drove on dirt roads and fewer people owned cars, so with less traffic, seatbelts were not necessary. As the roads became more congested and less safe, seatbelts were developed. Ella realized that older cars do not have radios to play songs like newer cars. Mason explained that the older car’s steering wheel sticks out much further because it does not have locks like the new car. Paisley said, “In old cars, babies just sit on their parents’ lap instead of in a car seat." The children demonstrated an in-depth understanding that many things change over time including laws (rules), roads (infrastructure), and technology. Skyler told the class that iPads did not exist during the time of those cars. In the end, we explained that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived in the past. Many things in the world were very different when he was around, similar to how the bus and car looked different from the buses and cars that we see now. Throughout the next week, we will continue to highlight concepts, ethics and relating over time, as we further our discussion on MLK. Thank you to Owen’s for joining our classroom Shabbat celebration this week! Shabbat Shalom, Mari & Aaliyah Shabbat Family Schedule: 1/19- Mason 1/26- Kayden 2/2- Paisley 2/9- Carter 2/16- Ella 2/23- Neda Reminders: 1. 1/15- No school MLK Day 2. 1/16- No school PD Day 3. 1/18-Parent Discussion: Lindsay Astor Grant, O.T. 9:15 A.M. in ZH 4. 2/3- Tot Shabbat AND Wise School Gala 5. 2/5-2/9- Father and Grandfather’s Week – events TBA 6. 2/9- All School Shabbat for Father’s and Grandfather’s – 11am in ZH 7. 2/12-2/16- EC Picture Week (Room 8 classroom picture day TBA) 8. 2/19- No school President’s Day 9. 2/20- No school PD Day 10. 2/23- Beit Issie Farmers Market January 1-5, 2018
Welcome back and Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a family filled, relaxing Winter Break. We enjoyed hearing about all of the wonderful activities that the children took part in over break. From Skyler’s vacation to both Mexico and Cabo (she insisted that she went to two places), Michael and Elliot’s meet up in Hawaii, to Paisley’s visit to her Grandma Nita’s house, we truly loved hearing about all of their adventures. Before asking about what the children did over Winter Break, we posed a different question as an introduction into our next concept: Related Over Time. We asked, “What does the ‘past’ mean?” To our surprise, the kids were puzzled at this new question and none of them knew what it means “to occur in the past.” We explained that the past means that something already occurred, whether that is an activity, vacation, birthday, etc. In order for the children to get a better understanding, we then asked, “What did you do over Winter Break?” which was a “past” activity. Neda told the class that she went to a restaurant over break, while Benjamin said that he went exploring in his backyard. After hearing a few more answers, Mason put the idea of the “past” into simpler terms by explaining that the last is “like last time.” Michael also made a connection between the past and when he was a baby. We continued this discussion by introducing a new vocabulary word, “future.” After explaining what the “future” means, we inquired, “What do you want to learn in the future?” The children demonstrated a great understanding of this concept and gave unique answers. For instance, Kora wants to learn to make a pumpkin pie, Mason wants to learn to ride his bike without training wheels, Elliot wants to learn to ice skate, and Kayden wants to learn how to do a cartwheel. There was one piece of the overall concept “Relate Over Time” that was missing, which is “the Present.” Ask your child what “the present” means. He or she might tell you that it is “The Now!” We followed up this explanation by asking, “What are we doing right now?” We encouraged the children to use details and adjectives to describe exactly what was going on in the classroom and outside in this moment. Owen said, “Now, we are at school.” Paisley stated, “We are having a conversation right now.” Ella told the class that it was cloudy outside, and Skyler explained that some friends are 5 years old right now but others are 4 years old. We were very pleased with this week’s Share Day to bring in something from the past. We loved seeing all different pictures from each child’s past including baby pictures of the kids, baby pictures of their siblings or parents, or even a picture that Carter drew of himself when he was 3 years old. This was just a start to many conversations and class discussions that we will have regarding the past, present and future. We have been preparing the children for this concept through the past year, just on a different level of learning. During their Explorers year and first half of Pre-K , we have exposed the children to the importance of order. For example, counting has to be in a particular “order” or else it does not make sense to just state random numbers. Also, as the children have learned to write their names, they comprehend that the letters have to appear in an exact order or else their name will not be their name. These concepts provide the children with a basic understanding of sequencing. Now, we are taking the learning a step further and teaching the idea of sequencing in terms of time. The children learn that things change from when you are a baby to a child to a teenager to an adult. Relating ideas over time and grasping the definition of time is a critical thinking skill that is essential to all areas of learning. As the children begin to better understand the idea that things change over a period of time, they will automatically be thinking on a deeper and more complex level. This is just another concept, similar to details, comparing and contrasting, and patterns, that teaches the children how to learn. Thank you to the Shadi’s for joining our classroom Shabbat celebration this week! We enjoyed singing songs, reading stories and celebrating Wynter’s 5th birthday! We can’t wait to segue into Martin Luther King’s birthday next week and incorporate our new critical thinking concept. Shabbat Shalom, Mari & Aaliyah Shabbat Family Schedule: 1/5- Wynter 1/12- Owen 1/19- Mason 1/26- Kayden Reminders: 1. 1/6- Tot Shabbat 2. 1/8- Enrichment begins 3. 1/15- No school MLK Day 4. 1/16- No school PD day |
Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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